Clifton youth injured in bike-ATV collision

CLIFTON, Maine — An 11-year-old boy from Clifton was injured Saturday afternoon when he rode his bicycle into the path of an all-terrain vehicle driven by another juvenile. The accident happened at about 3 p.m. on the unpaved Hopkins Pond Road in Clifton.

According to Maine Game Warden Shannon Fish, the 11-year-old bicyclist emerged suddenly from the heavily forested driveway of his home and turned directly into the front end of an oncoming ATV operated by a youth of about the same age. The boy on the bike suffered a deep gash on his leg and called 911 from his cellphone, telling dispatchers he was “bleeding to death.”

Emergency crews responded from several neighboring communities and the injured boy was taken to a local hospital for treatment. The child operating the ATV was not injured but was “pretty well shook up,” according to Fish. Fish said he believes the youth on the ATV was wearing a helmet and that the boy on the bicycle was not.